182 The Salt Industry in Cheshire. 
rally a very expensive operation, the average cost for the mending 
of one pan alone being from £30 to £40 per year. 
The pans are arranged in rows, with platforms running down 
between them on a level with the top edge of the pan. The 
platform is separated from the pan by a trough. The steam is so 
dense that as one stands on the platform one can scarcely see to 
the other side of the pan. As evaporation proceeds, the salt 
crystallises out on the top of the brine, looking very much like a 
thick layer of snow gathering there, which sinks to the bottom as 
the crystals increase in weight. Men stand in the troughs with 
long rakes and ladles, and when a good solid layer has formed on 
the top they rake it off over the edge. The difference in the 
grain of various kinds of salt is due to the different temperatures 
the brine is allowed to reach. In pans kept at roo® F., the salt 
produced is of a very coarse grain. It is drawn from the pans once 
a week, or if very coarse grain is wanted only once in two or three 
weeks, It is called fishery salt, and is used for curing fish in Great 
Britain and Norway. In pans kept at 160° to 190° F., coarse 
common salt is produced. ‘This is taken from the pans once every 
twenty-eight hours, and is used for chemical processes and alkali 
works. It is sent to America and other parts of the world. 
At boiling point fine salt is produced, and this is the kind I 
suppose we are all most familiar with. It is taken from the pans 
two or three times every twenty-four hours, and then either shipped 
as it is or made into blocks, in which form we buy it for table. 
To get it into these blocks, it is packed while damp from the pan 
into long-shaped boxes, each holding about 28 lbs. of salt. After 
lying in these for an hour it is sufficiently cohesive to be turned 
out and still keep the shape of the box. This is done, and the 
damp blocks are then put into a hot chamber for a week, being 
kept at a temperature of go° to 110°- The blocks are sent 
largely to America for curing meat, for the salt there contains 
MgCl., which spoils meat; but the loose, fine salt is shipped mostly 
to India and Burmah, nearly half a million tons going annually. The 
amount produced from each pan making common coarse salt is 40 
to 50 tons per week, and from the fine salt pans 25 to 35 tons. 
The quantity of coal consumed in the furnaces for making 1 ton 
of coarse salt is 11 cwt., and for 1 ton of fine salt about 14 cwt. 
Various methods have been tried to cheapen and simplify the 
process of evaporating, but so far nothing has been found to 
supersede the present arrangements—namely, the plain, open, 
evaporating pans and the very cheap slack coal, which costs at the 
works only 5s. per ton. M. Weibel, the great French engineer, 
visited in 1882 some of the Cheshire works, and he was of the opinion 
that nothing could be better than the present plans. He had 
invented and put into use in France a highly complex system of 
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